Having difficulty understanding transgendered people? I'll try to help.

KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime

Lolita Style, The Best Style!
Jan 12, 2010
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PaulH said:
Could I ask; what would be the best type of martial arts to learn if you're not super fit anymore? I'm not overweight, but muscle mass is considerably lower than back when I was training in tennis 4 hours a day as a young teen. Admittedly I don't really have too much problems now given a few years of HRT, but just in case someone lashes out if one is inadvertantly outed and faces hostility? I live in Australia, so weapons are a no-no.

I'd rather someone with knowledge of the likely scenarios of being unexpectedly grabbed, etc. Personal perspective of what's most useful for someone with decent reach, but not much in the way of strength? As you seem to be someone with a lot of experience dealing with violent arseholes. Given I might be doing more bar work soonish, I kind of want to protect myself.

I'm 5'10'' if that makes a difference, about 65 kilos.
A few people chimed in on this already. While Taekwondo and Krav Maga are both really useful, I find them both a bit inefficient. If you want to use an attacker's strength and size against them, as a personal preference, Akido and Judo are the best in my mind. Judo in my experience is easy to learn, but Akido has more flexibility. Being your size I'd say those are the optimum choices. You could however go for Jeet Kune Do, as it's not a martial art it self, but rather a structure of mixed martial arts based on what works best for you.

Now if you have to pick just one. I'd say go with Judo, it's relatively easy to pick up, it gives you a good defence against attack, and doesn't rely totally on physical strength. Akido is probably just as much of a good choice too and to my mind is more flexible as a defensive art, but it tends to be more technical, thus harder to learn. Though that's all in my experience, yours maybe different. If you can take more than one class I'd suggest taking the core three Japanese arts of Karate, Judo, and Akido, as they compliment each other shockingly well. Again that's personal experience speaking.

As a final note, don't be afraid to drop an art if it's not working for you. None of them are perfect, and finding what works for you is more important than trying to find the objectively best one. As a small person most east Asian martial arts will favor your size. Ones based on throws and grappling will end up most useful for self defence.
 

Addendum_Forthcoming

Queen of the Edit
Feb 4, 2009
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KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime said:
A few people chimed in on this already. While Taekwondo and Krav Maga are both really useful, I find them both a bit inefficient. If you want to use an attacker's strength and size against them, as a personal preference, Akido and Judo are the best in my mind. Judo in my experience is easy to learn, but Akido has more flexibility. Being your size I'd say those are the optimum choices. You could however go for Jeet Kune Do, as it's not a martial art it self, but rather a structure of mixed martial arts based on what works best for you.

Now if you have to pick just one. I'd say go with Judo, it's relatively easy to pick up, it gives you a good defence against attack, and doesn't rely totally on physical strength. Akido is probably just as much of a good choice too and to my mind is more flexible as a defensive art, but it tends to be more technical, thus harder to learn. Though that's all in my experience, yours maybe different. If you can take more than one class I'd suggest taking the core three Japanese arts of Karate, Judo, and Akido, as they compliment each other shockingly well. Again that's personal experience speaking.

As a final note, don't be afraid to drop an art if it's not working for you. None of them are perfect, and finding what works for you is more important than trying to find the objectively best one. As a small person most east Asian martial arts will favor your size. Ones based on throws and grappling will end up most useful for self defence.
Well, I was surprised just how much muscle mass melts away on HRT and an orchi, so yeah. Anything that helps me use another person's momentum against them is always nice. Plus you can do the whole; "Stop hitting yourself"-thing. So far the only 'martial' art I know is fencing. Entirely impractical, though cool. Because sabre is cool ... stupid foil and epee.

I mean, I might follow the advice Loony put up and due a basic defensive body combat thing so that I can pick up the basics before doing any of these martial art things though, mainly because it sounds like the basics of arm locks and the like seem like pretty immediate tuff I can learn, looking at the videos online.

Anyways, thanks for that! I shall give it a look in at the university gym and rec centre stuff. I heard there's also a lot of other courses about that seem to particularly want to outreah to members of the LGBT community, seeing them as higher risk of assault which, well ... unfortunately goes without saying.
 

Poetic Nova

Pulvis Et Umbra Sumus
Jan 24, 2012
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PaulH said:
seeing them as higher risk of assault which, well ... unfortunately goes without saying.
One of many reasons why I prefer wearing steel-toed boots when outside, even if it is a grey area according to the law when used outside construction zones.
 

Redryhno

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Jul 25, 2011
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PaulH said:
Given that you are proceeding into a discussion about them why exactly shouldn't they have strict set of rules? But perhaps you're right ... I did come off as hostile and for that I apologize. Just been a bad day, but that's no excuse.

Look, for the 'crazies' I think most of them are normal people living their lives. It's just that the internet is a nice way to talk about various problems with people. Given that trans people don;t tend to have the easiest of existences, the two kind of mesh together. It's pretty frightening actually, and some of it sounds crazy though it has a basis in reality. Like for instance, being afraid to report a crime inflicted upon you to the police, because you'll likely be treated with further abuse? Being made homeless for it? Denied housing? Denied employment? Mistreated in hospitals?

It adds up. It might seem crazy, but when you face ingrained prejudices EVERYDAY, somebody making fun of you for simply being trans, rather than some aspects of it which might actually be witty, but just simply being? Well ... sorry, calling it 'bullying' seems adequate, whether you like it or not. People are better than that, and criticism of it, whether it be targetting sexuality, race, or for being trans, is deserved.

Which is why we no longer have portrayals of black people like Hattie McDaniel's Mammy from Gone with the Wind. Because people became better than that. And yes, that requires fierce opposition. That requires loud opposition. Nobody had their rights won by being silent. So you call it crazy, I see analogues to any civil rights movement in history. Loud wins over a quiet little corner of the internet.

Also. I didn't call you cis-scum, or garbage, I said that if you don't treat a person with respect they have no reason to treat your opinion with respect. Who's putting whose words in their mouths?

(Edit) Oh, and for the record ... I didn't piss on Ace Ventura. I said it was a 'product of its time and place' ...
You put it in your last sentence in that post, it was a joke...Like again I have to question if people take the internet too seriously anymore.

But sure, vocal opposition changes stuff. Doesn't mean that the vocal opposition could easily do more harm and go way too far. My mother's still got a bit of a thing when it comes to Malcom X where she just shivers a bit because he terrified her as a kid.

And guidelines should be expected, but strict rules? Sorry, but the idea of educating the ignorant runs against the strict rule setup. You are going to get stupid questions when people don't know all you do. And going so far as to start insulting and declaring you an enemy to transpersonhood because of that and refusing to answer questions that you haven't approved? Way too far and sorta not what understanding should be about. For the record, that is something I've actually been accused of by some crazies, so please don't tell me that it's just a case of the internet warping perception. People take things far too seriously and apparently forget how to laugh when they get on.

But again, acting paranoid constantly is not healthy at all. Just because you MIGHT have something like that happen to you is not grounds for acting like it already did that day and taking it out on the people you are saying you want to help understand. And I have to say, where do you all live that you have to live the way you seem to have to? Most people I meet I can bet you either don't know anything about trans, or don't care enough to bring it up, much less make fun of.

As for your martial art question, there's a couple of things you could check out, TaeKwonDo is probably the easiest you can find(I know there's like six courses around where I live done by different people), but is largely more like a competitive sport and fitness routine than fully practical unless you get decently advanced in most situations you'd probably be in around bars.

Krav Maga is also a decent technique you can probably find at least one in pretty much any city you're in anymore given how popular it's become, but has a bit of emphasis on fully incapacitating someone normally by way of breaking bones and injuring the more sensitive parts of a person's body as soon as possible, so may not be the one you're looking for since you said you were looking to not get sued.

Personally I'd advocate for alot of the Southern Chinese styles, alot of them are based in self-defense scenarios historically. But the two I know the most about are HungGa and Win-Chung(I may be remembering this name wrong). Krav Maga is sorta a mix of bastardization and descendent of a couple of these styles. Bonus too, since both have somewhat popular visual aids for what it sorta looks like.

The former is essentially Earth-Bending(as in, the animations in Avatar were based on this one), alot of emphasis on having solid footing and having strikes hit with the full strength of your body as opposed to most that have you just using your leg or arm mostly with origination coming from elsewhere. One of the most versatile styles if I remember right, lots of "strong" blocks and hits that hit with the full force, but not a huge amount of grappling since that normally screws your footing up. Ok, I sorta lie, the grappling they do have is more like grabbing their arms and head, holding them, and then going to town on their abdomen and kidneys if you have a free arm. Or just grabbing an overextended appendage and getting them off their footing to again go to town on their abdomen and kidneys.

Also a VERY good fitness routine, considering alot of early training is based on building core strength and stability and the liberal use of weighted rings on arms by just standing in the forms for minutes on end, stretching, and then switching to a new form. This obviously speeds up as you progress, though the rings get a bit heavier. If nothing else, I'd advise you learning some of the basic forms and techniques if you want to build strength for any other things you do.

Win-Chung(again, I may be telling you the wrong name, sorry.) is essentially what they use in Arrow alot of the time, heavily defensive style with a few kicks. Mostly focused on angled blocking and dodges to dissipate a hit's strength and basically having your opponent wear themselves out on you or just screw up entirely because they tried to hit you too hard and overbalanced, meaning you can go in for a nasty little strike.

Two problems though. The first is me, I'm a few years out of date, the guy I started Hung Ga with died a few years ago, and before that, I sorta had to stop because I've had one knee constantly injured by random things throughout my life, and it eventually is going to stop working because of them, so I had to heavily tone down what I did and I could easily be remembering this wrong. The second is that both of these are going to be sorta rare to find outside of major port cities I think, in the U.S. at least, I don't know where you live. Neither are immensely popular, but they get the job done and allow you to fight in decently small spaces. And as Kyuubi has said, Judo is ok as well, but still requires a substantial amount of upper body strength and needs a bit of space to use to the fullest extent, like, more than you'd expect, which you say you're lacking.

0takuMetalhead said:
PaulH said:
seeing them as higher risk of assault which, well ... unfortunately goes without saying.
One of many reasons why I prefer wearing steel-toed boots when outside, even if it is a grey area according to the law when used outside construction zones.
Last I knew it was just if they were hidden steel toes outside of construction(though they lead to alot of severed toes as opposed to crushed feet so I'm not sure what the point is for them). So long as you can see them, it's not a big problem in terms of "hidden weapon" potential.


OT: So exactly what is your personal thoughts on transgenders(pre-op, transexual, whatever the correct word is for the ones that still their original junk) asking out straight, "normal", people and getting rejected once it comes to light? Transphobic or just sorta being a straight person and wanting genitals that don't look like their own? In addition, should a person feel obligated(wrong word, but I think I'm getting the idea out, just got off work, sorry) to date a transperson they have no sexual interest in because of the above because they're a "real" woman(not trying to be a dick here, just trying to be clear and differentiate) and there's not a substantial difference?

And my question from earlier, when do you think a transperson should "come out", in terms of age and pretending we live in the ideal world for trans persons, and what events lead up to it to hint and convince the person or if there is any indication you know of personally that would mean someone essentially just going through a phase and not actually trans? Vice versa goes without saying I think.
 

Subbies

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KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime said:
Some men are born with two Y chromosomes and no X Chromosome.
Sorry to nitpick and stray off topic, but that's impossible. The mother can't produce Y chromosomes so there will always be at least on X chromosome in a man's genome. It's possible for a man to have XXY or XYY albeit rare, but never YY.

Sorry if this has been said before, I couldn't be arsed to check all 5 pages of responses.
 

Poetic Nova

Pulvis Et Umbra Sumus
Jan 24, 2012
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Redryhno said:
0takuMetalhead said:
PaulH said:
seeing them as higher risk of assault which, well ... unfortunately goes without saying.
One of many reasons why I prefer wearing steel-toed boots when outside, even if it is a grey area according to the law when used outside construction zones.
Last I knew it was just if they were hidden steel toes outside of construction(though they lead to alot of severed toes as opposed to crushed feet so I'm not sure what the point is for them). So long as you can see them, it's not a big problem in terms of "hidden weapon" potential.
Interesting to know. I'm admittedly not completely familiar with the law.
Those that I wear follow the safety regulations, those that don't cut your toes when something falls on them.

Also, mind if I gett back to you later to give my personal oppinion about the questions you have? Even if it is obvious that I'm not the one that made this topic.
 

Redryhno

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0takuMetalhead said:
Interesting to know. I'm admittedly not completely familiar with the law.
Those that I wear follow the safety regulations, those that don't cut your toes when something falls on them.

Also, mind if I gett back to you later to give my personal oppinion about the questions you have? Even if it is obvious that I'm not the one that made this topic.
Yeah, basically if you're wearing the classic type biker and goth boots with steel toes that are clearly visible that are essentially just a hunk of metal hanging off the front of your shoe, it's inadvisable, but not illegal from what I know.

And go on ahead, so long as I get some kind of answer from anyone trans I don't mind. I didn't think it'd be a one and done answer anyways. If I get more people answering, it's even better.

Edit: Also, just thought of one of the questions I've wanted to ask again for anyone that feels they can answer it.

If you are trans, and the options to change either mind or body were available, with no discernable drawbacks(essentially the way it is now) to either, would you take the choice to change your mind to match the body you have? Or change the body to fit the mind?

Following that, do you believe that GRS and other trans related surgeries should be covered under healthcare and not require you to invest your money yourself or that they shouldn't and continue being considered largely elective surgeries?
 

Olas

Hello!
Dec 24, 2011
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Perhaps this comes from being cisgendered, but I don't really understand what people mean when they say that they're a woman in a man's body or vice versa. The way I've seen it my whole life, being in a woman's body is what made you a woman, and being in a man's body is what made you a man. I don't "feel" like a man or a woman, I just know that I have a penis and my biology textbooks tell me that it means I'm male.

I know that there are some general mental and emotional differences between men and women, but these seem very vague and fluid to me. I've seen men cry, and women act stoically, and the overall difference doesn't seem substantial enough to justify labeling someone's mind either "male" or "female".
 

KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime

Lolita Style, The Best Style!
Jan 12, 2010
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Olas said:
Perhaps this comes from being cisgendered, but I don't really understand what people mean when they say that they're a woman in a man's body or vice versa. The way I've seen it my whole life, being in a woman's body is what made you a woman, and being in a man's body is what made you a man. I don't "feel" like a man or a woman, I just know that I have a penis and my biology textbooks tell me that it means I'm male.

I know that there are some general mental and emotional differences between men and women, but these seem very vague and fluid to me. I've seen men cry, and women act stoically, and the overall difference doesn't seem substantial enough to justify labeling someone's mind either "male" or "female".
I can understand this point of view. But being male and cisgendered is part of the difference. You are biologically male and at the same time your brain agrees that's absolutely correct. For trans people it's different, we are born one way, and our minds say "this is wrong!" It can be hard to express gender disphoria to someone with no gender identity issues, but it's a part of intrinsic identity, and in a trans person we don't identify as the gender we're born.
 

Notshauna

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TranshumanistG said:
This confuses me. Does this mean that that you can be transgender while being content with your Sex and Gender Expression conservatively expected of you? Doesn't that leave being transgender nothing more than a pronoun game?
For some Transpeople, yes. There are some people who are only interested in transitioning socially, which means being referred to as their gender. The sex gender crossing is the defining aspect of being trans, not the severity. That's why some people only transition socially, others keep the pronouns of their sex, others transition socially and go on HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) but don't get SRS (Sex Reassignment Surgery) and others do get SRS. Personally, I'm going to (haven't yet) transition socially, which includes a name change, legal gender change (when available) and stating that I want to be referred to with both my name and female pronouns and receive HRT to eliminate the Testosterone from system and replace it with Estrogen. As for SRS I'm undecided about it, right now my penis isn't something I'm uncomfortable with but, that may change.
 

Notshauna

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Subbies said:
KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime said:
Some men are born with two Y chromosomes and no X Chromosome.
Sorry to nitpick and stray off topic, but that's impossible. The mother can't produce Y chromosomes so there will always be at least on X chromosome in a man's genome. It's possible for a man to have XXY or XYY albeit rare, but never YY.

Sorry if this has been said before, I couldn't be arsed to check all 5 pages of responses.
It's technically possible, Turner's Syndrome is when someone doesn't receive a X chromosome from one of their parents, this technically could be combined with the father's sperm containing two y-chromosomes to create a zygote with two Ys but such a zygote would not survive.
 

Loonyyy

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PaulH said:
A basic self-defence course that specialised in locks and takedowns sounds like something that won't get me sued. Also sounds pretty useful if you're grabbed suddenly, or against a drunk.
I'd recommend some sort of self-defense course, they have them at some gyms, and it'll probably get you into the stuff you need quicker. Most traditional Martial Arts, Karate, Taekwondo (While new, it hews to a traditional structure), run off a grading system of ranks. So White belts will do basic punchs, blocks, and front kicks etc, whilst as you get higher in rank, you'll learn more applicable self defense skills. Some classes will restrict take downs, etc, until one has reached a certain rank, which isn't so good for learning right away.

And this Taekwondo sounds pretty good for me. I have shitty upper body strength, but my leg strength isn't so bad (and my reach with them is phenomenal), mainly because I walk almost everywhere in the city. I thought muay thai uses a lot of elbow work, so I might not be so good at that.
Taekwondo has a lot of useful kicks, which can be good, they're a way in a punch up to really level the playing field, but the kicks aren't so good if someone goes in close, or wants to fight on the ground. A lot of big guys will abuse their size to easily win fights by going in under and just knocking people down (I discovered this trick after I got a lot taller, it's ridiculous.). But, with the right leverage, you can learn to do the same thing to someone who weighs more than you. I knew a lot of very badass girls at mine who could kick you in the head seventeen different ways, it's all down to how you can use these things. A lot of the MMA terminology really helps for understanding it, I find.

Elbows are really useful. Punches are a really bad idea. They don't do a lot, but they will fuck your hands right up if you don't practice bareknuckle strikes regularly. A palm strike, or an elbow strike, is much more effective. A proper hand or elbow strike is a whole body motion, so upper body strength isn't the deciding factor. Elbows hurt a hell of a lot when they hit, and they make a good lever motion.
They'd also need to be some killer steel-toed boots. Like, GORGEOUS. I wear a lot of boots though, as I ride a motorbike. Though they tend to be the fashionable sort.
Well, motorcycle boots would also be pretty good. They're fairly heavy. You can't do head kicks etc easily in boots, but if you're ever in a self defense scenario, a set of heavy boots, and a kick to the underside of the knee, the shin, or the side of the knee, can hurt someone enough to let you run away. Fortunately, I've never had to use them in person, but they make you feel a lot safe in dangerous neighbourhoods.
 

NoeL

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Redryhno said:
NoeL said:
I think the issue is just ignorance and exposure. Not to be presumptuous, but if your primary source on what the trans folk are up to is people commentating on what the crazies do then of course you're going to come away with an incredibly biased understanding. An analogy would be a YEC whose only exposure to evolution has been what his church leaders have told him, or an atheist whose only expose to Christianity has been watching Thunderf00t (hey, two religious analogies... it was all I got).
The problem is that the majority of people "answering" questions are the crazies(and by answering, I mean people repeating what they say with a question mark and then repeating themselves again). The majority of the ones that make themselves known(nearly exclusively MtF in my experience, still trying to figure out why that seems to be the case, apologies to MtF that aren't intolerable douches, who knows, maybe it's just like my luck with gay guys being much the same, never met a lesbian I wanted to skin myself to get out of a social event with them) are the ones that go apeshit over simple things like Ranma characters and the Ventura crapshoot.

With religion and evolution, you can find other voices relatively easily, heck, even feminism with all its constant fracturing is easier to find voices for, but with trans, you get the crazies, and if you're lucky, a thread like this one every sixth blue moon on the third rotation of Beetlegues that I'm still hoping to get some answers from.

And it REALLY doesn't help that alot of them(again, apologies) don't have a sense of humor when it comes to them. You can say it's because they've been the butt of jokes for a huge amount of time, but there's not a single section of society that hasn't - and shouldn't - be off-limits to comedy.
I'm not going to discount your experience, I'll only say I don't share it. From your posts here it does just seem like you're intolerant of people voicing their gripes on life (or at least LGBT folks that do that, since your only other example was homosexuals), so when a trans person quite reasonably says "I don't like this" - as we're all entitled to do - you just dismiss them as a "crazy" whiner. I think it's made you a bit of a cynic so you get that confirmation bias of "most MtF trans are crazies" more than what's justified (and since you don't have that bias towards religious people it's much easier to see them for what they are).

So yeah, rather than dismissing people like PaulH as "just another crazy trans person that won't let me speak my mind without getting offended", try and open yourself to actually listening to what they're saying and why they might not've liked what you said. Really, anyone would get a bit peeved being generalised like that, don't you think?
 

Redryhno

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NoeL said:
I'm not going to discount your experience, I'll only say I don't share it. From your posts here it does just seem like you're intolerant of people voicing their gripes on life (or at least LGBT folks that do that, since your only other example was homosexuals), so when a trans person quite reasonably says "I don't like this" - as we're all entitled to do - you just dismiss them as a "crazy" whiner. I think it's made you a bit of a cynic so you get that confirmation bias of "most MtF trans are crazies" more than what's justified (and since you don't have that bias towards religious people it's much easier to see them for what they are).

So yeah, rather than dismissing people like PaulH as "just another crazy trans person that won't let me speak my mind without getting offended", try and open yourself to actually listening to what they're saying and why they might not've liked what you said. Really, anyone would get a bit peeved being generalised like that, don't you think?
Dude, I never called PaulH anything, if you're going to say I said something, please at least make an attempt to use what I wrote.

I have a huge beef with religious types for the record, same as I do with alot of atheists, they're both sorta morons in my book. The difference is that the true believers respect that not everyone is down with it, and they're MUCH easier to find.

Now, can you contribute to answering any of the questions I've yet to have answered? Because that's all I'm interested in here.
 

Platypus540

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I do have one question, for you or anyone else knowledgeable: What, exactly, is the difference between bisexual and pansexual? I've never been able to get a clear answer from anywhere, including a friend of mine who is himself transgender and very active in the LGBT community. Thanks in advance.
 

Ishal

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Loonyyy said:
Taekwondo has a lot of useful kicks, which can be good, they're a way in a punch up to really level the playing field, but the kicks aren't so good if someone goes in close, or wants to fight on the ground. A lot of big guys will abuse their size to easily win fights by going in under and just knocking people down (I discovered this trick after I got a lot taller, it's ridiculous.). But, with the right leverage, you can learn to do the same thing to someone who weighs more than you. I knew a lot of very badass girls at mine who could kick you in the head seventeen different ways, it's all down to how you can use these things. A lot of the MMA terminology really helps for understanding it, I find.
As someone who is 5'6" the size thing is something I've had to deal with my whole life. Sucks.

When I took Karate and a bit of Taekwondo I was taught to counter it a little bit, but not all that much. I wanted to learn Judo and more take down stuff but they closed the local dojo. That combined with my parents moving up in the company they worked at meant they couldn't take me anywhere else, no time.

It really sucks just being taken to the ground by someone bigger. Quite infuriating. When I get my proper job after grad school I'm going to start taking classes again. Akido or Judo sounds pretty good right now. All the UFC kids at my undergrand would always go on about the Gracie Jiu Jitsu stuff. Is that really as good as everyone says it is?
 

Areloch

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Dec 10, 2012
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Ishal said:
Loonyyy said:
Taekwondo has a lot of useful kicks, which can be good, they're a way in a punch up to really level the playing field, but the kicks aren't so good if someone goes in close, or wants to fight on the ground. A lot of big guys will abuse their size to easily win fights by going in under and just knocking people down (I discovered this trick after I got a lot taller, it's ridiculous.). But, with the right leverage, you can learn to do the same thing to someone who weighs more than you. I knew a lot of very badass girls at mine who could kick you in the head seventeen different ways, it's all down to how you can use these things. A lot of the MMA terminology really helps for understanding it, I find.
As someone who is 5'6" the size thing is something I've had to deal with my whole life. Sucks.

When I took Karate and a bit of Taekwondo I was taught to counter it a little bit, but not all that much. I wanted to learn Judo and more take down stuff but they closed the local dojo. That combined with my parents moving up in the company they worked at meant they couldn't take me anywhere else, no time.

It really sucks just being taken to the ground by someone bigger. Quite infuriating. When I get my proper job after grad school I'm going to start taking classes again. Akido or Judo sounds pretty good right now. All the UFC kids at my undergrand would always go on about the Gracie Jiu Jitsu stuff. Is that really as good as everyone says it is?
To be perfectly frank, if you're looking for something that will help you survive a dangerous encounter, I wouldn't recommend most traditional martial arts. They're excellent for discipline, and great for getting in shape, but most of them aren't designed for grubbing survival, which is what the real life, bad scenarios are likely to be. If you're looking for practical self defense, you want something that's specifically designed to not fight anyone. You want something that incapacitates, disables or breaks your attacker long enough to get away.

Military arts are honestly more a sound choice for self defense than traditional martial arts because those were designed to help you survive in dangerous situations.

I personally learned by barely-held-back street brawling with friends, so my combat knowledge was about actually trying to stop the opposition, not fight them. So when I went and later joined tae kwon do for a year or so, I actually intimidated and scared a lot of the other people there because I didn't operate on nice, clean forms, but instead irregular movements, anticipating where people would go, and how to get into blind spots.

So, for some advice from a random person in the internet, if you're looking at self defense, look at something that isn't designed to fight people, but break them. You'll be closer to something that'll keep you alive if it goes bad.
 

Ishal

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Areloch said:
I personally learned by barely-held-back street brawling with friends, so my combat knowledge was about actually trying to stop the opposition, not fight them. So when I went and later joined tae kwon do for a year or so, I actually intimidated and scared a lot of the other people there because I didn't operate on nice, clean forms, but instead irregular movements, anticipating where people would go, and how to get into blind spots.

So, for some advice from a random person in the internet, if you're looking at self defense, look at something that isn't designed to fight people, but break them. You'll be closer to something that'll keep you alive if it goes bad.
Well, as a prim and proper white kid from a upper middle class sub urban neighborhood, I know little of that. My friends weren't like that. However I do know some things about martial arts having taken classes.

And yes, I see where you're coming from. Discipline, and combat against other martial artists, such a tournament fighting for points, are some of the things that are taught there. Some, not all.

I thought Akido? Or Hapkido? Was along the lines your described. Come at me, I break your arm. Keep coming, I do worse. Dangerous holds to hurt people. Problem is while that does sound appealing, I'm not sure if I could show restraint in tense situations. We all say we will, but that's armchair thinking. I don't want to get in trouble for what I might do to someone.
 

KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime

Lolita Style, The Best Style!
Jan 12, 2010
2,151
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Ishal said:
Areloch said:
I personally learned by barely-held-back street brawling with friends, so my combat knowledge was about actually trying to stop the opposition, not fight them. So when I went and later joined tae kwon do for a year or so, I actually intimidated and scared a lot of the other people there because I didn't operate on nice, clean forms, but instead irregular movements, anticipating where people would go, and how to get into blind spots.

So, for some advice from a random person in the internet, if you're looking at self defense, look at something that isn't designed to fight people, but break them. You'll be closer to something that'll keep you alive if it goes bad.
Well, as a prim and proper white kid from a upper middle class sub urban neighborhood, I know little of that. My friends weren't like that. However I do know some things about martial arts having taken classes.

And yes, I see where you're coming from. Discipline, and combat against other martial artists, such a tournament fighting for points, are some of the things that are taught there. Some, not all.

I thought Akido? Or Hapkido? Was along the lines your described. Come at me, I break your arm. Keep coming, I do worse. Dangerous holds to hurt people. Problem is while that does sound appealing, I'm not sure if I could show restraint in tense situations. We all say we will, but that's armchair thinking. I don't want to get in trouble for what I might do to someone.
Um this is kind of derailing the topic. While the input is interesting, perhaps you could start a new thread on this?
 

Ishal

New member
Oct 30, 2012
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KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime said:
Ishal said:
Areloch said:
I personally learned by barely-held-back street brawling with friends, so my combat knowledge was about actually trying to stop the opposition, not fight them. So when I went and later joined tae kwon do for a year or so, I actually intimidated and scared a lot of the other people there because I didn't operate on nice, clean forms, but instead irregular movements, anticipating where people would go, and how to get into blind spots.

So, for some advice from a random person in the internet, if you're looking at self defense, look at something that isn't designed to fight people, but break them. You'll be closer to something that'll keep you alive if it goes bad.
Well, as a prim and proper white kid from a upper middle class sub urban neighborhood, I know little of that. My friends weren't like that. However I do know some things about martial arts having taken classes.

And yes, I see where you're coming from. Discipline, and combat against other martial artists, such a tournament fighting for points, are some of the things that are taught there. Some, not all.

I thought Akido? Or Hapkido? Was along the lines your described. Come at me, I break your arm. Keep coming, I do worse. Dangerous holds to hurt people. Problem is while that does sound appealing, I'm not sure if I could show restraint in tense situations. We all say we will, but that's armchair thinking. I don't want to get in trouble for what I might do to someone.
Um this is kind of derailing the topic. While the input is interesting, perhaps you could start a new thread on this?
That's fair, I'll take the rest to PM's and stop it here.